Monday, August 16, 2010

Rep. McMahon Asks Bloomberg To Follow Through On Acquiring Goodhue Woods For Park

Marigold Green, 5, holds up a sign in favor of the Parks Department's takeover of the Goodhue property during a land use meeting last year. Neighbors and environmentalists are pushing the City to acquire 38-acres in New Brighton owned by the Legal Aid Society in order to protect the property from development and to have it turned into a public park. (Photo: Tevah Platt/S.I. Advance)

Staten Island

Rep. Michael McMahon has again asked the Bloomberg administration to "follow through" on its "promise" of protecting the Goodhue Center and Woods in New Brighton from development,according to the Staten Island Advance.

Noting past funding that has been secured, including a $1 million appropriation grant he got last month for the city's purchase of the property from the Children's Aid Society, McMahon said he is "very concerned about the city's seeming lack of commitment to this project." He also pointed to City Council money previously earmarked.

In a letter to city Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe, McMahon wrote in part: "Last September, Mayor Bloomberg pledged in his campaign his commitment to bring Goodhue Woods into the city parkland. I urge you to make good on this commitment and to begin to work toward an agreement with the Children's Aid Society to use the $9 million allocated as a down payment on the purchase and work out a payment plan for the remaining balance."